She said CYF had a legal obligation to accommodate such offenders as soon as possible and the delays in finding them suitable beds was "unacceptable".
The 14-year-old's lawyer Nick Silich said, like the 16-year-old, his client was a first time offender. In December she was charged with trespass and wilful damage.
She was remanded on bail and due to a number of breaches she ended up being placed in a CYF residence.
She did not want to be there and ran away repeatedly, ending up in the youth justice facility at Wiri.
Before she was placed there she became pregnant.
"They didn't really want her at youth justice, they believed they could not keep her safe in that environment," Mr Silich said.
"There is absolutely no facility for young females aged 14-17 that are pregnant and there needs to be."
The girl was eventually granted bail and was subject to electronic bail.
"She absconded again and was sent straight to Christchurch. She had no family down there. She was obviously in a vulnerable state," Mr Silich told the Herald.
"She was there for two weeks without family or legal counsel. She came back up for court... and when they went to send her back she played up on the plane and they had to take her off.
"She was arrested and charged with disorder. She only played up because she didn't want to go back to Christchurch."
The girl was eventually found a place at a CYF residence near Auckland and then returned to her family where she is "doing well".
Mr Silich said if CYF had adequate facilities in Auckland the ordeal could have been avoided.
"If you're a young female and need to be held in a secure facility you need to go to Palmerston North, Wellington or Christchurch. They don't want you in Auckland," he claimed."
"My client's situation is not uncommon. The problem is there's not enough secure beds for girls."
CYF previously told the Herald that there were 120 beds in youth justice facilities, effectively jails for young people, and just 20 were allocated for girls.
But lawyers said the ratio was grossly misappropriated as girls offending was "on par" with boys.
Mr Silich said Auckland was the biggest city in New Zealand with arguably the most young offenders. Beds at youth justice facilities should reflect that.
"There's never enough," he said.
"This is ongoing. Sending my client to Christchurch was terrible, she was in limbo."
CYF would not comment on the girl's case specifically for privacy reasons.
They did address concerns about concerns around youth justice facility space.
There are 120 beds across New Zealand's four youth justice facilities - which CYF residential and high needs services general manager Nova Salomen is sufficient.
She said demand for beds at youth justice residences was falling.
"This has come about largely because of a notable drop in youth crime and youth court appearances and initiatives to keep young people who offend out of custody.
"The data that we have over the last few years talks about a reduction of youth crime. It also shows that while we are having more young people in remand, we have an adequate number of beds."
Ms Salomen said young people were only placed in secure facilities when absolutely necessary.
"Secure residence is never the first decision for young people. We look for placement in the community and their family or whanau settings. That's the first priority for young people," she said.
"They usually come into a secure facility because of their behaviour, their offending, their risk of absconding and re-offending. Sometimes people do have to placed out of their community but we do it for the absolute shortest time necessary because we know we want to get them back to where they need to be."
She said the 120 beds were constantly full.
"Ideally we want them full - because they are a resource that's there and if they were sitting empty that would be a concern.
- additional reporting by Susan Strongman
